shuck
/ʃʌk/noun, verb
shuck is spelled S-H-U-C-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 61,481st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shuck means “The shell or husk, especially of grains (e.g. corn/maize) or nuts (e.g. walnuts)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of shuck is shucks.
How many letters and syllables are in shuck?
| Letters | 5: S-H-U-C-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 61,481st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is shuck?
Shuck appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 61,481st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce shuck?
- /ʃʌk/
- /ʃʊk/
Shuck has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-shuck.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of shuck
- shucks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- shucking participle, present
- shucked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shuck mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The shell or husk, especially of grains (e.g. corn/maize) or nuts (e.g. walnuts).
- 2
slangA fraud; a scam.
- 3
slangA phony.
- 4
A supernatural and generally malevolent black dog in English folklore.
verb
- 1
To remove the shuck from (walnuts, oysters, etc.).
Shall we shuck walnuts?
- 2
To remove (any outer covering).
I will shuck my clothes and dive naked into the pool.
- 3
slangTo remove (an external hard drive or solid-state drive) from its casing so that it can be used inside another device.
- 4
slangTo fool; to hoax.
- 5
To shake; shiver.
- 6
To slither or slip, move about, wriggle.
- 7
To do hurriedly or in a restless way.
- 8
To avoid; baffle, outwit, shirk.
- 9
To walk at a slow trot.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shuck in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to remove the shuck from:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | décortiquer, écailler, écosser |
| Spanish | descascar, descascarar, descascarillar, mondar, desconchar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does shuck come from?
Origin unknown. Possibly a dialectal survival of unrecorded Middle English *schulk(e), *schullok (“small shell”); either from Old English *sċylluc, *sċylloc, diminutive of Old English sċyll (“shell”), or alternatively created in Middle English from Middle English schulle, schelle (“shell, husk, pod”) + -ok, making it equivalent to shell + -ock (diminutive suffix) or shell + -k (diminutive suffix).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).